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UPDATED: 7/24/2013, 12:08 p.m.

Most people around the islands have likely passed electric-car charging stations in parking lots at shopping centers, hotels and public spaces throughout the islands, perhaps without noticing them.

But for drivers of electric vehicles, accessing a place to charge up can make the difference between powering through their day and losing power on the drive home.

So it would be disconcerting if some electric vehicle owners discovered that they couldn’t use a sizable percentage of the state’s charging stations – a little like if gas-powered vehicle drivers discovered that they couldn’t use a large chain of gas stations.

And that turns out to be the case. More than 70 cost-free charging stations for electric and hybrid vehicles with plug-in technology – that were installed with the help of about $580,000 in federal stimulus funds – cannot be accessed by hundreds of early adopters of emissions-free vehicles.¹

The company that installed those charging stations, the Israel-based Better Place, went bankrupt earlier this year. When the company went under, they took the key fobs that allow drivers to access power at the stations, with them.

Electric car drivers can be forgiven for cursing those three letters: F-O-B.

That’s because without a coveted fob there is no way for electric vehicle drivers to power up their vehicle at stations installed by Better Place on Oahu, Kauai, the Big Island or Maui, says OpConnect, the Portland, Oregon company that recently purchased Better Place’s assets in liquidation.

Brian Goldstein, a manager for OpConnect in Hawaii, said his company has pursued many avenues to get new fobs, including cloning the ones that they already have. But the encryption has proven too difficult for some companies, and others will only do it for huge orders. “No company will talk to us for 100, 500 or 1,000 fobs,” said Goldstein. “That’s not how this industry works.”

Goldstein said it’s likely that Better Place has extra fobs in Israel, but OpConnect has not been able to track them down. “You know they have fobs there somewhere,” he said. “If I could just find the right person who would put them in a box and mail them to me, I would be thrilled.”

About 800 to 900 customers secured fobs before the rest of the electronic devices got lost in the shuffle, said Goldstein. Approximately 100 customers have since tried to sign up for Better Place’s network. They are still awaiting the digital key that grants them access to it. (It isn’t clear how many other drivers have not applied because they know they can’t get fobs.)

Overall, there are some 15,000 hybrid owners – although most don’t have plug-in components – and more than 1,500 electric vehicle owners in Hawaii, many of whom cannot use Better Place’s stations.

Ultimately, the problem will be resolved when OpConnect replaces Better Place’s charging stations with its own, which Goldstein expects to happen before the end of the year. Once OpConnect’s network is in place, the company will start charging about $2 an hour to plug in a vehicle. (Currently, OpConnect is picking up the electricity tab for those charging at its stations.)

Better Place’s network cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to install, much of it picked up by taxpayers under the federal stimulus program. Under Hawaii’s EV Ready Program, the state energy office in funding to Better Place to help advance a state-wide charging network and to mitigate any “range anxiety” that new electric vehicle owners might have before purchasing a car.

But Better Place was unable to entice enough property owners to install the stations and the amount was subsequently reduced to about $580,000, according to Noreen Kam, a spokeswoman for the state energy office. The stations cost property owners $2,000, while installation costs were subsidized through stimulus funds, the company said when it received the funding.

OpConnect has taken over the contracts with property owners to oversee the charging stations, but ultimately it wants to use its own technology, in part because the company doesn’t have access to spare parts when something breaks on Better Place’s charging stations.

Goldstein said that OpConnect’s business model centers on advertising revenue. The stations will have a 15-inch color touch-screen that will display ads. Some stations will also have a larger 35-inch screen. The company will also bring in revenue by charging consumers to charge up with their credit card, smart phone or e-mail address, said Goldstein. (Some businesses are expected to pay the charge fees for drivers, as a courtesy to their customers.)

And, in a simplification of the process, Goldstein noted, there is one thing that OpConnect customers won’t need to power up their vehicle: a fob.